About the Book

Book: The Silver Shadow
Author: Liz Tolsma
Series: True Colors, Book 11
Genre: Christian Historical/Suspense
Publisher: Barbour Fiction
Release Date: May 2021

A Shadowy Figure Is Intent on Harming Denver’s Women

Book 11 in the True Colors series—Fiction Based on Strange-But True History

Denver of 1900 is still a dangerous place to be following the silver crash of 1893. And out of the dark comes a shadow intent on harming women. Ambitious young Denver newspaper reporter Polly Blythe is searching for the big story that’s going to launch her career. On Friday evening, August 24, 1900, she gets her break when two women are cracked over the head within a two-minute walk of each other. But policeman Edwin Timmer thwarts Polly’s ideas of a serial criminal. . .until the shadowy figure strikes again. Will the reporter and the policeman team up to find the culprit before he strikes too close for comfort?

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My Thoughts

This is my fifth book that I have read from this series and so far I have enjoyed all of them. I will say that this one was a bit different than the others I have read in the series. There was suspense but it was bit more subdued but the storyline does keep you engaged and at least for me it kept me guessing on who the culprit was. It was also different because in this one you actually get to know the Silver Shadow and get a peek inside his train of thought and see his reasoning for attacking these women which was an interesting take on the storyline.

I really enjoyed the characters of Polly and Edwin. Polly is a go-getter and all she wants is to be a reporter that actually reports news and not society events. She really fights for this throughout the story and it made me sad that a huge part of it was because she was trying to get her father to be proud of her and accept her for who she was. Edwin is a detective with the Denver Police Department. He meets Polly through her investigation of these incidents and through that build a friendship and a later on a relationship. Their romance was nice and slow and very realistic. I really enjoyed their banter and how she would take over and somehow run the show.

This is my second book from this series that was written by her and I thought she did a great job. You can tell that she did her research and I think she did a great job at making these characters come alive even though a huge chunk of it is more fiction than historical. She did a great job at weaving the message that God's bigger and knows all of the plans for our lives throughout the story.

Overall I thought this was a great story and addition to the series. If you enjoy historical true crimes, suspense and a little romance then this is the book for you! I can't wait for the next one!

My Rating: 3 Stars/ I liked it... just wish there would've been a bit more suspense to it.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. I was not required to post a positive review. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.

About the Author

Liz Tolsma is the author of several WWII novels, romantic suspense novels, prairie romance novellas, and an Amish romance. She is a popular speaker and an editor and resides next to a Wisconsin farm field with her husband and their youngest daughter. Her son is a US Marine, and her oldest daughter is a college student. Liz enjoys reading, walking, working in her large perennial garden, kayaking, and camping. Please visit her website at www.liztolsma.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter (@LizTolsma), Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest. She is also the host of the Christian Historical Fiction Talk podcast.

More from Liz

One of the most popular questions I’ve gotten from many readers of the True Colors Crime series is how do I come up with the ideas for the books? For the first two, Becky Germany, acquisitions editor at Barbour Publishing, had the ideas. That made my life easy. I just had to fictionalize it, and I had a book. But when I was putting together the proposals for The Gold Digger and The Silver Shadow, it was up to me to find the true crimes I wanted to use.

I went online and scoured historical crime blogs and books for ideas. I wanted crimes that I could work easily with, that made for compelling stories. As I was doing this, my husband and two daughters and I were driving home from Georgia. We were somewhere in Indiana. Don’t ask me why I remember this when I can’t remember what I had for dinner last night, but I do.

And then on Google Books, I discovered a book about crimes the world had forgotten. The first one in there sounded so good. Not too grisly, something that no one would be able to guess the culprit very easily. It was perfect. Imagine my excitement when Becky told me they would be publishing The Silver Shadow.

Then I sat down to research it more. And I could hardly find anything! What? Where was all the information on this? There had to be more. That chapter in the one book couldn’t be all there was. He had to get his information from somewhere.

Eventually I did come across some articles from various Colorado newspapers with a few details. Not many at all. None from any of the Denver papers, even though that’s where the crimes were committed.

In the end, that’s all the information I discovered. In a way, it was freeing. I could write whatever I wanted, and no one would be the wiser. Even if they did some research and some digging, there wasn’t much to find. I was able to take the facts that I did have, combine that with what I found out about Denver in 1900, and put it together in a story. I tried to use historical details wherever I could, but of my four True Colors Crimes books, this is the most fictional of them all.